Govt land vacant for three years. What housing crisis?

Leaving 8000 square metres of prime residential land vacant for three years while Auckland is in the grip of an acute housing crisis is slack beyond belief, says Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.

“The Government has left this land on Asquith Ave in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert empty after evicting Housing NZ tenants and demolishing the units. The land has even had fast tracked consenting as one of Nick Smith’s so-called Special Housing Areas. But three years on, there is no sign of construction.

“I challenge the Government to get on and build the new homes that people so desperately need.

“This is just one example of foot-dragging from a Government that is allergic to the idea of actually building homes. It is hard to know whether this is bureaucratic inertia, or more denial that there’s a housing crisis, or both.

“It is no wonder the Government missed its own target of 2000 new state homes by December 2015, only managing to complete 1038.

“National has been obsessed with selling off state housing, when it should be leading a massive home building programme to alleviate the dire shortage of homes. Labour will build 100,000 affordable homes for first home buyers, end the state house sell off, and build thousands of new state homes.”